Like cycling solo? (Page 2)

I do most of my training alone.

Group rides I have done the roadie pace line type rides as well as loose rides with tri friends. If you live in Boston and are a women, NEBC has great group rides once a week. They break down groups based on pace and usually have a newbie group to teach basics and practice paceline. They have two folks from the team with each group to make sure the ride goes smoothly. Quite a giving and great group of women. Some weeks they have over 50 women out for their group ride.

My favorite are riding with tri friends. We don't do pacelines, we chat at times, we sometimes draft but not often. We share our passion for our sport while riding same roads.

I do mostly train alone just because it is easiest time and logistically.

I wish I had more friends to ride with that lived closer to me.

I'm in between.  I like to go out with one or two others and I like the protection they offer me from cars and this guy in particular goes ahead at stop signs to check if it's clear so I rarely have to stop!

I don't think I'm skilled enough for the group thing unless it were really close friends.

so other than that on my own.  The nice thing is with more than one when you get a flat etc and for safety.  On my own though no pressure to perform at a certain level!

Would love to do a group ride but after years of riding the timing still doesn't work.  I am lucky I can ride from my house about a block and am on a road that lots of folks cycle on.  Occasionally I do ride with one other person. 

My one attempt at trying to meet up with a group ended before it started as either the group I was supposed to ride with never showed and was replaced with a bunch of irritated guys bent on me not riding with them or I missed them somehow.

I love to do my long runs and rides by myself.  I can set the time, leave on time (pet peeve of mine), change my mind at the last minute, etc.  I have a swim group, strength is with a group, trainer ride with a group.  Pretty much the only things I get to do by myself are two runs and two rides and I enjoy it, over half of my tri training time is spent in a group.  It's a nice balance.  And there's a very popular place to run and bike where you will see tons of people, and a lot of those people you know. 

It's also the best for training.  Train with someone else and most of the time you will either hold them back or they will hold you back. 

LOL!!!

This^^^^^ Otherwise it can become a social event fairly fast.

Please don't bring GD into another thread with enticing questions!  Please.

I like going out on the tri bike solo and doing group rides on the road bike. Usually on the tri bike I'm doing the same flattish areas so I can practice being in aero. On the road bike I like to explore, and I find that in a group ride we pretty rarely do the same ride twice. Also people seem to know really cool routes I'd never find on my own - and all the hills. Amazing how hard you push when someone yells KOM and the chase is on.

Pluses for group rides: Learning good bike handling skills, social interaction, being pushed not to get dropped, safety, not getting lost and having to check Google maps.

No-drop rides can be start and stop, it depends on how well the ride is organized. The Bike Club of Philly (for example) grades their rides A-D and they are very good at keeping to their definitions of what the ride will entail. I had a blast with them this weekend - 50 miles of hills. Another group (no names) I stopped riding with because their goal seems to be to drop everyone who isn't a pure cyclist, and they never stick to the advertised ride level.

To ride alone vs. a group is better training wise because then you are going at your pace and not someone else's.  There are benefits to groups, i.e. pushing yourself more because you don't want to be dropped, bike handling skills, etc.  But if you're in a group that is staying together, chances are someone in that group is not going as fast as they can, and, if that is their goal, then it would not be as good as a training session as if they were by themselves.

It really all depends on what your goal for a session is. 

This is why I love group rides. Riding with the A pace group ensures that I will get a fantastic ride in, or risk being taunted mercilessly in the parking lot afterwords. Learn how to suffer in training so you can make others suffer in your race ~Someone (I can't remember whom)

I'm not talking about being forced to ride hard, I'm talking about advertising a no-drop ride at a tough but manageable pace, and then having the cat-2 ride leader and his buddies take off and leave people 30 miles away from the start and leave the rest of the group stuck at a red light. Especially women. I stopped riding with them last year, but we had a situation a couple weeks ago where they did it to some female members of my tri club. That's not making people suffer during training, that's being a DB.

Getting dropped happens, but the role of a ride leader is to ensure a hard but safe ride. Even in a drop ride you call people to make sure they're OK.

I'm a solo rider too, but mostly because of timing and logistics.  There are plenty of group rides near me that start at 7am or 8am on the weekends.  Because of family commitments, I tend to finish my long rides at 8am-ish, so the local group rides typically don't work for me.  If someone wanted to start at 5:30am or even earlier during the summer, then that might be a different story.

As for potential training benefits in groups or riding solo, I think it's different for everybody.  Perhaps there are some benefits to being pushed in a group setting, but I think the main point is to ride - getting time in the saddle is the most important part.  Riding solo works for me.

We do it all the time but it's for safety reasons.  When shouting on a bike it often sounds a bit more harsh than intended just to be heard.

Pacelines are fun but can get out of hand fast with competitive riders.  I think it all depends on the group.

I'd much rather ride in a group even if we aren't in a paceline but I don't like running with a group unless it's in a race.  Running is my alone time with whatever I want to think about or think about nothing. 

Riding in a group is just so much safer from a visibility to traffic standpoint.  That always makes me feel better and at ease.